Pentagon, White House re-examine war strategy

Goal remains`an Iraq that can sustain, defend and govern itself'

November 11, 2006|By David Stout The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon's top general said Friday that military leaders are taking a hard look at what changes are needed in their strategy in Iraq. But the White House said its definition of success there has not changed.

"We have to give ourselves a good honest scrub about what is working and what is not working, what are the impediments to progress and what should we change about the way we are doing it to make sure that we get to the objective that we set for ourselves," Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview on the CBS Early Show. He said Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, and Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, were working on the review.

Pace said the impending departure of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, announced a day after congressional elections that have been widely viewed as a repudiation of the administration's Iraq policy, will not have a direct bearing on changes.

Asked in another interview, on MSNBC, if the United States was winning in Iraq, the general replied: "You have to define winning. I don't mean to be glib about that. Winning to me is simply having each of the nations that we're trying to help have a secure environment inside of which their government and their people can function."

Pace likened the fight against terrorism to fighting crime. "Example: Here in Washington, D.C., there's crime, but there's a police force," he said. "And the police force keeps the level of crime below the level at which the government can function. That's really what winning in the war on terrorism is."

But when he was asked about the general's remarks, the chief White House spokesman, Tony Snow, said the administration is still committed to victory in Iraq, and that its definition of victory has not changed. Snow defined victory as "an Iraq that can sustain, defend and govern itself," words virtually identical to those used recently by President Bush and his surrogates.

While the White House insisted that the goal in Iraq is the same, the potential for a change in approach is obvious. Not only are the top military commanders reviewing Iraq policy, but influential civilian policymakers are looking at it as well.

Bush is to meet Monday with the Iraq Study Group, which has been studying possible changes to overall strategy in the country. The chairman of the panel is James A. Baker III, one-time secretary of state and top adviser for the first President Bush. Others who will meet with the study group are Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Rumsfeld; John Negroponte, the national intelligence director; Gen. Michael Hayden, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency; and Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador to Iraq. "The president's looking forward to hearing their views and discussing Iraq," Snow said.

In a sense, changes in Washington's approach to Iraq are already obvious. This year was to have been one of a significant withdrawal of U.S. forces in Iraq, yet there has been no reduction in forces, now close to 150,000 troops, and no letup in the sectarian violence that threatens to tear the country apart.

The resignation of Rumsfeld, who received an apparently wholehearted verbal embrace from Bush just days before the election, was seen as a reflection of growing discontent among the American people, and among Pentagon uniformed leaders.

In insisting Rumsfeld's replacement by Robert Gates, assuming he's confirmed, would have no direct impact on changes, Pace said on CBS that the Defense Department would be passing from "very strong hands to very strong hands."